Chapter 545: Deathly Ill
I waited at the exit to the library for Quaid for about ten minutes after classes ended for the day. When he didn't show, I kicked myself for even bothering. No more waiting around for stray boys to get their crap together, not when I had things to do.
Entirely unfair. Quaid's "see you later" hadn't had a time attached to it, outside "later."
Still.
Sniff.
I made a quick bag dump in my dorm, leaving my backpack behind. It didn't look like Shenka had been around, and I worried something happened between her and Tallah. She missed lunch, too, and I had to tolerate Tippy's gushing all over me with no Liam to hit on while the other girls eye-rolled and stayed quiet.
Charlotte didn't comment when I turned right back around and left my room, heading out into the Yard. She must have known very well where I was off to, because she didn't miss a step when I turned abruptly and headed for Liam's dorm. It was a quick walk, but it felt like it took forever, now that I was heading his way.
A knock on his door didn't rouse a response, so I snooped. My magic curled under the lip, over the hardwood floor, a subtle thread I hoped Liam wouldn't take personally. Not that he usually would. My Sidhe friend was nothing if not kind and sweet at all times. Except lately. So what changed? Yes, he was sick. But before that...
Sonja. I couldn't bring myself to believe his own mother could turn him around so easily. Not when she had years to do so without anyone interfering.
Venner? If he was tampering with my friend, Mom or no Mom, threat to me or not, I'd be sending him back to the Unseelie Court, all right.
In a body bag.
Temper, Syd. Temper.
That left Ameline.
If she touched him, it would take her years to die from the pain I inflicted.
"Liam?" I accompanied my questing magic with another knock. "Are you home?"
Still quiet. But no, he was there. I could feel him, if barely. I heard him cough, a deep, tearing sound and stepped back from the door.
Minding my own business wasn't my best characteristic.
The door was locked, but gave way under a twist of air magic, letting me inside. The moment I passed the threshold, the scent of illness assaulted my senses, metallic and dark, a tang of early decay and old sweat hanging in the air. I coughed myself, Charlotte growling softly as her eyes shifted to wolf and back again.
Someone had pulled the shades, engulfing the room in shadow, but enough light came through the open door I could clearly see the end of Liam's bed and his long, bare feet poking out from under the covers.
"Liam." I crossed to him, anxiety taking over as I sat next to him, cradling one of his big hands in mine. Charlotte stalked to the window and threw open the shades, pouring sunlight over the room, over my friend.
I choked on a cry and touched his face even as I reached for Mom.
I need help. I felt around his power, desperate to heal him, only to feel my touch rejected.
Syd. Mom's sharp response couldn't break through my fear. We've talked about you interrupting-
Instead of telling her, I showed her exactly what I saw. Liam's ghostly face, veins blue beneath his transparent skin, closed eyes sunken into his head, bruise-like bags dark and terrifying. He wheezed breath out through his open mouth, lips cracked and bleeding, skin so parched from dehydration I thought he might fall apart like one of his precious books if I touched him too forcefully. He looked like he'd lost twenty pounds since I saw him earlier.
What the hell happened?
I'm on my way. Mom cut me off without another word, her own concern leaving behind a powerful aftereffect. I tried again to offer Liam healing, but nothing made it through. He'd closed himself off, shielded so tight I could barely feel him at all. But why?
What was he thinking?
Liam's eyes flickered open, but nothing of awareness lived in them. "No," he whispered. "Not you."
Um, what?
He twitched, turned from me, or tried to, as if struggling to escape. "Go away, don't want you. Go away!"
Wow. That was nice, wasn't it? No one else was here to take care of him the ungrateful-
Syd, my vampire reached for me. Something's wrong.
No freaking kidding. What's going on with him?
I don't know, she sent. But there is magic here. Subtle. Repelling you. Repelling us.
That makes no sense. I reached for Liam again with all of my power and finally felt what my vampire did, a slick of oily nastiness on the surface of his shields, like a film of waste. And embedded in that waste was my image.
Gross. And evidence of tampering.
Shaylee shuddered as she touched it while my demon snuffled the edges and gagged on the stench. Sidhe, she sent. Glamour.
Oh hell no. Venner? I was going to track his ass and beat him senseless.
I don't... she stopped. No. Someone else.
Lovely. I reached for Liam again only to have his body convulse, eyes bulging wide as his mouth gaped open in a silent scream of horror.
We have to break the glamour. Shaylee pushed me aside with more force than I'd ever felt from her. If we don't, we won't be able to help him.
I was all for that. How?
Just let me work. I felt her coil tight as she touched his shielding, a soft song rising from her magic. It thrummed as it grew louder, sliding across the slick surface of the repellant magic, sending ripples over its oiled surface. Liam continued to shudder, as though in some seizure, but I refused to release his hand, knowing if I did Shaylee's job would be that much harder without contact.
"Hang on, Liam," I said through teeth clenched so tight I could barely speak.
Almost there. Shaylee shuddered delicately even as she uncoiled, her magic sliding over the breaking surface of the glamour. For one disgusting moment she-we-covered the full space around him, the filthy slime absorbed into Shaylee's energy. I instantly wanted a shower from the inside out even as her song rose in volume, her magic vibrating the repellant glamour into bits until it broke apart and vanished with one last gasp of energy.
Liam collapsed, exposed skin slick with sweat, eyes rolling into the back of his head as he wheezed for air.
Shaylee slid back into place, giving me control. It's done, she whispered, feeling exhausted but full of anger. The worst kind of glamour, Syd. Thrall tied to hate.
Liam's eyes slid forward, lids drooping, but this time when he saw me, he didn't fight. Instead, the hand I held between my own twitched ever so slightly. His lips closed, opened again, a thin sound emerging.
"Gate," he whispered as I leaned in to listen. "Gone to the green."
Charlotte's shadow hovered over me, a bottle of water, dripping condensation, thrust into my view. "He needs to drink," she said. "Now, Sydlynn."
Normally, I would have ribbed her for being bossy. Just didn't have the time. Not while I did my best to ease a few drops past Liam's parted lips, only to have him choke on the precious fluid.
Charlotte made a sound very close to a frustrated growl and shoved me aside, sliding in behind him, drawing my friend's torso up until he half-sat against her.
"Try again," she said.
Better. At least I wasn't drowning him anymore. By the time Mom rushed in with two young witches behind her, I'd managed to coax half the bottle down Liam's throat. And while I was happy we'd managed that much, he showed no signs of improvement.
Mom sank down next to me, hand on Liam's chest, her power reaching for him as mine had. A frown pulled her face out of its normal beauty as she turned to the two witches. Both appeared only a little older than me, with golden brown hair, a brother and sister from the look of them. They joined us at Liam's bedside, their joined magic sliding over Mom's.
"Syd," Mom said, holding her hand out to the pair, "this is Alphonse," the male half of the two nodded his head, gaze warm and kind. "And his sister, Lula Kennecott." The girl smiled, her power brushing the edges of mine in greeting.
Mom didn't have to tell me why there were there, or explain the soft, gentle magic they carried with them behind their matching hazel eyes.
Twins. Healers.
Awesome.
I told the two healers about the glamour and what Shaylee and I had done, glaring at Mom as I did. I stepped away and left them, not wanting to interfere, sliding down the end of the bed, keeping a loose physical grasp on Liam's foot as the two healers smiled sweetly at me before displacing Mom at his side. She stood, coming to hover over me, as the pair did their job.
Tried to. I didn't want to get in the way, but this was Liam. I couldn't just sit there. So I piggybacked, staying out of their magic flow, just in touch enough to feel how he pushed them back, too.
But wait. I'd missed it before. It wasn't Liam pushing back.
Someone else's shields surrounded him. The glamour filled two jobs, it seemed. One to keep Liam from me and the other, to prevent me from knowing what I now registered so clearly.
"Mom," I said. "Whose magic is that?"
She turned to me, frowning as the twins nodded in unison.
"He is being held," they said together, still lost in the fight to break the shielding. "Whatever power feeds these wards, it's Sidhe in nature, but doesn't originate in the patient."
I couldn't sit anymore, rising to pace, arms wrapped around me, eyes locked on Liam and the healers on the way back from the five steps to his dresser. It was hard to make the turn, head away from him, but I had to. Couldn't bear it.
What was happening to my friend?
The words he'd managed to whisper. He'd mentioned the green.
So had Ameline's note.
Oh. My-
"We've brought down his fever." Lula's voice broke my thought and spun me around. "But he resists any healing while the shielding holds him. As if his soul is elsewhere."
Shudder. Mom.
She didn't acknowledge I'd spoken in her head. "Can you break through the wards?"
"We could," Alphonse said. "But he's in a fragile state, Miriam. It would do more harm than good."
"What's wrong with him?" A sick feeling rose inside me. I'd failed him when he needed me. Allowed his mother and that bastard Venner to distract me. Let Mom's warning keep me from asking questions.
"We don't know, Leader Hayle," Lula said. "He has some kind of virus. It's not natural but magical in origin. And, from what we can tell, designed to weaken his physical body and distract his mind. As for the shields... they seem to hold his body together." Lula seemed to struggle with her next words. "I fear if we break them now, Liam may not survive."
Mom twitched. Syd, she sent. I'm sorry.
So am I. Bitter, the taste of my failure. It has to be Venner.
Mom didn't argue. "Please, stay with him. Keep trying to heal him of the virus."
Both twins nodded before turning back to Liam. Charlotte eased out from under my friend, coming to my side, shaking with anger.
"He feels wrong," she said. "Damaged." Her black hair shook around her, charcoaled eyes dangerously narrow. "I should have sensed it was more than a flu."
I had to clench my hands into fists to keep from hitting something as my eyes settled on a bowl and spoon next to Liam's bed. I pointed it out to Mom and the twins. "Sonja was supposed to be taking care of him," I snarled. "Said she was going to make him soup." Alphonse pounced on the bowl, a flicker of power sliding around the ceramic surface but stayed blue. He shook his head before setting it down again.
Not the soup. Why did that bring a hysterical giggle to the back of my throat? "So she's either a terrible mother," my vote, "or she's in on this with Venner," okay, also my vote.
Yeah, I got two votes. This wasn't a democracy.
"Syd," Mom said, "we still have no proof Venner or Sonja are involved. Until the twins can uncover what's wrong, we can't act."
I clenched my shaking hands, wishing I could just shake the stupid rules out of my mother. "Where are they?" Growling would get me nowhere, but I couldn't control my voice.
Mom shook all right. Her head. "If the twins uncover their involvement, I'll be the first to question them. I can't have you running off and demanding answers when we have no evidence."
She was so wrong. I still had options. "Just take care of him, Mom." I grabbed Charlotte's hand and ran for the door. "I'll be back with help."
She didn't try to stop me. Smart Mom.
I could have had Charlotte sniff Venner and Sonja down, but I wanted backup for this particular instance. And, as much as I wished I could just take the two of them out, Liam had to come first. And I had to do something. Maybe Galleytrot could find a way to heal Liam.
If anyone could.
Galleytrot? I threw the black hound's name out as a question while I took the stairs two at a time, racing for the Yard before I jumped into the veil. Charlotte didn't resist my grip, flying along beside me.
No answer. Galleytrot. I probed for him, let Shaylee out completely.
Nothing.
This was bad. Unless he was behind the wards of the Gate.
Deep breath, Syd.
The veil welcomed me as always, humming softly with the life of the Node, the touch of my grandmother, Ahbi, now alive and well within it. I tried to avoid the distraction of its/her touch and it/she must have sensed something was wrong, because the usual feeling of happiness faded to grim just as I leaped out of the veil onto the side lawn of town hall back home in Wilding Springs.
The stairs took half a breath, the wards opening easily to me as I raced over and into the Sidhe Gate cavern, already calling the big dog's name.
"Galleytrot?" I stopped in the silence of the front entry, holding my breath.
"Something's wrong," Charlotte hissed, easing around me, her wolf flexing visibly inside her.
"I know." I glanced to the right, into Liam's room. Empty. And a quick look in the archive told me it was also uninhabited, at least the office space. If the hound was somewhere back in the stacks, I'd never find him.
"Sydlynn." Charlotte's humming growl caught my attention, spun me back toward the main cavern and the Gate.
Where a dark lump of fur lay sprawled on the stone.
Motionless.
***
